


Two Slow Dancers

by thegayfinch



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Missing Scene, the sun is a lesbian and her gf is the moon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 18:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17228912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegayfinch/pseuds/thegayfinch
Summary: Just for tonight. Neither of them said it out loud, they didn’t have to. Both of them knew.aka a missing deanoru scene from the end of 2x11





	Two Slow Dancers

**Author's Note:**

> nico is obsessed with mitski and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.
> 
> // i had to jump in the car and drive to the literal mountains immediately after watching 2x11 and didn’t have access to the last two episodes for three days so this is how i coped in the meantime.

The hostel was silent, now. Gone was the laughter and the music, the cascade of glitter and the horrible pink of the Snowball mountain. 

Everyone else had tucked themselves away, and Nico couldn’t blame them. The absence of Chase hung heavy—and by absence, she knew she really meant abandonment, but could barely accept the word now, again. Who would’ve known she’d have grown so fond of the white boy with the good hair. Stupid, really—look where it had gotten them. 

Nico’s breath came tight, and some part of her knew the culprit was probably fear. It felt better to keep to keep it at arm’s length, just in the distance to deal with tomorrow. Emotional intelligence? Yeah, she’d heard of it. But one could only process so much on one’s own—and, lacking a co-processer, sacred fire rituals were a natural next step. 

So she reminded herself of the flames, of each paper she’d burned, each name she couldn’t bear to stand the weight of, for one reason or another. 

She was free now, wasn’t she? That’s what she’d told herself earlier that day, at the market. Laughing with Molly, Gert, the boys—and when she glanced over as Karolina grinned, the perfect tiara for Molly clutched in her hands? No pain, there, just a sense of herself as drifting, her body nothing but waves as her thoughts churned only slowly on the sea floor. Which meant the fire had worked, hadn’t it? The hurt was gone because she had let go. And so it meant nothing more than sunburn that her skin hummed under the touch of Karolina’s own glances, nothing more than caution that her ears fought against the din of market haggling to scoop up the shape of Karolina’s voice.

Picking through bills at the register, that voice had curved towards her, specifically. Asked if she had enough cash for the dresses.

“Barely, but yeah. Alex has more, if you need to get something.”

“No, no. I’m good. Just wanted to check in.”

Nico’s tongue prepared an icy Oh, so we’re checking in now? But she remembered the flames, and allowed their heat to melt her words down to a nod and smile. 

“Ok.” Nico saw herself willing Karolina to find another sentence, to ask another question, the pull of this sunshine girl hotter than any candle. 

Karolina kept her eyes trained down, and Nico beat back fear that this total eclipse of her heart would last forever. 

“I—"

“Karolina!” 

Molly brandished a bright pink sash aloft. “Can you help me tie this?”

Karolina stood a little straighter, and Nico could tell she was physically drawing herself away from whatever thoughts were bogging her down.

“Sounds like your cue,” Nico shrugged and gestured at the cash register. “I’ll finish up here.”

“Great. If she wants the sash, I’ll grab some money from Gert.” Karolina smiled, or at least half of one, and headed off to help Molly.

Nico was grateful she didn’t look back, if only because she wasn’t sure whether her secret superpower could withstand it. The secret behind the black lipstick—what began as desperation on her lips always wound up looking like a simple scowl. 

***

Nico hadn’t said much tonight, preferring to fill her mouth with artificial marshmallow and song lyrics now surely forgotten to the outside world; a shallow world, already on to the next top bops and bangers. But in the hostel, the playlist flooded them with nostalgia for a time only some handful of weeks past, but which had bottomed out into what felt like another lifetime. She didn’t think of the last dance she’d gone to, which is to say she numbed her mouth with Snowballs when memories of eyes like oceans dared to tingle on her lips. 

After Gert dragged Chase out into the open, a storm on her face and a terrified tugboat behind her eyes; after Chase let the metal grate slam down behind him; after Gert stomped upstairs, her every step a threat to the structural integrity of the stairs; after Molly kicked over a light and stormed out; after the heat of the room cooled as Karolina set off, first in Molly’s direction then, with a second thought, in Gert’s; after these things, Nico looked up to notice that Alex had made his exit too, and she was alone.

She’d long been used to being alone. She liked it, always had. Nico sighed, considering the celebratory detritus strewn across the hostel. The knocked-over lamp, the melted marshmallows, the party lights haphazardly strung, the piles upon piles of multi-colored glitter vomited across every inch of the floor. Someone was going to have to clean it up. Best to let good moments live on only in their memories. This melted, wild mess would only make the morning’s mood worse. 

Whatever, it wasn’t like she was going to sleep much anyways. 

Nico took up her staff, a thought striking her. I wonder…

“Play Be the Cowboy. Can you, is that a thing you can do?”

… Nothing. 

Screw it, the staff was an ancient mystic family heirloom, not some cheap Alexa knockoff— 

Then, one note, played on an organ, held long, higher notes joining in. “Well I’ll be damned,” she breathed, an almost grin threatening to scare off her scowl. 

Humming along, Nico set about dismantling the room. She managed to tackle the lights, despite their height, and felt great about her executive decision to toss the marshmallows, despite their technical status as “edible.” 

But it was the glitter that posed the greatest challenge, and the one she saved for the last, the one that looked like it would take her past this album and back through Puberty 2 and Makeout Creek if she was to be thorough.  
On her hands and knees, a plastic trash bag before her, she painstakingly collected each tiny sliver of color. She didn’t want Gert or Molly to find any of them tomorrow, or Wednesday, or next month—it could be enough to undue a whole lot of processing. 

Singing and scraping along, Nico didn’t immediately notice she was no longer alone. 

“Hey.” A voice called down to her from the landing. Nico didn’t know if she could take more than the voice right now, but her eyes dared her to look up.

Karolina had one hand on the railing. She looked exhausted—no, that wasn’t quite right. Nico told herself it was purely an objective fact, without a personal evaluative angle, but in an outward sense Karolina was radiant in the navy jumpsuit, dotted with coins of color and small bursts of sun. Underneath that light, though, Nico knew that a deep exhaustion had enveloped Karolina almost completely. These are the hidden things one heart learns to notice on another. 

“I think Gert wants to be alone,” Karolina said. She didn’t really look at Nico when she said it, but the words angled downwards to the foyer’s floor. 

“Can’t say I blame her,” Nico sighed. 

One moment, then two, then three—and Nico bent back to the floor to gather more of the glittery jetsam. 

“Can’t you use the staff for that?”

“I could.”

“It just looks like a lot to clean up. That’s all I meant.”

Nico glanced up. “I know.” She took a breath. “I’m using it as a bluetooth speaker right now, actually. The staff, I mean.” 

Whatever song had been playing ended, fading into the next track. It was one they both knew well. Nico remembered late night laughter, remembered gushing about music, trying to explain what it felt like to see another Japanese woman sing of angst and artistry in the way this one did. Nico remembered that Karolina had a post-it note for Nico’s favorite songs—how she’d explained she wasn’t raised with non-Gib music, that she wanted to hear and learn and love every song that Nico had ever loved. 

Karolina frowned, and, still kneeling on the ground, Nico’s heart stumbled to see her descend the staircase. With a soft but firm hand, Karolina moved the trash bag from Nico’s hands—one heart reaching out to the other, asking her to stand. 

Just for tonight. 

Neither of them said it out loud, they didn’t have to. Both of them knew. 

Nico knew a lot of things, lightyears more than she’d known before all of this began. Not just about the world and all of its ill-gotten gains, but about herself. She was cursed to be the moon, capable of withstanding any flame, her heart pulling and pushing at the tides.

Karolina placed two tentative hands just above Nico’s hips, and Nico wrapped two tentative arms around Karolina’s neck.

They stepped to the left, then the right, until their feet eased into a smoother swaying. Not for the first time, Nico praised Karolina’s height, though now it was because she could rest her head into the crook of Karolina’s chest. Her skin was just as warm as it always was. 

Karolina’s nose crinkled, and for a moment Nico froze, worried she reeked of something like disappointment.

“It kinda smells in here,” Karolina grimaced. 

Nico unfroze. “Oh yeah. It’s the burnt marshmallows. Molly knocked over that candle, earlier.”

“Could be worse,” Karolina nodded. “Could smell like a, uh gymnasium.”

Nico snorted. “I hear they’re all the same.” 

“Can I give you a compliment?”

No.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I like your dress. It suits you.”

For an instant, Nico saw herself grow tall, saw herself laugh and pull Karolina close so that her suns settled against her moons. In the next, she saw herself melting into Karolina’s arms, a bashful mess of snark and gay foolishness. 

Instead, Nico slowed her swaying, pulling away to fit her hands into Karolina’s, who held them tightly. Nico noticed that her eyes remained above Nico, that they looked ever off into some shadowy corner of the hostel. 

Nico closed her own eyes and, for an instant she saw rainbows in the darkness behind her eyelids, brilliant and strong and soft all at once. There was the soft hint of lips against her forehead, or so Nico could have sworn, an almost-kiss that was just as much breath as it was lips. 

Then, it was all gone. The kiss, the heat, the pressure of Karolina’s hands were gone, and Nico heard footsteps on the stairs, accompanied by a new, faint swirl of warm air circulating upwards. 

With the piano fading, Nico opened her eyes. The room was dim and empty, but the glitter was gone, the last of it suspended on a light beam floating up, turning away and down the upstairs hallway. 

There were a great many things Nico wanted to say, but she settled for a silent _thank you_ , and _goodnight._


End file.
